Desk-tray back



vi". L. G. STRAUBEL.

DESK'TRAY HACK.

APPIICATION FILED OCT. 24. |917.

Eateuted; Oct. 21, 1.919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

F. L. G. STRAUBEL.

DESK TRAY RACK.

APPLICATION FILED ocT. 24| 19H.

fu. y@ l. @943i e Patented Oct. 21, 1919.

2 SHEETS-sneu' 2.

FREDERICK L. Gr. STRAUBEL, 0F GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN.

DESK-TRAY RACK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Get.l 21, 1919.

Application filed October 24, 1917. Serial No. 198,200.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, FREDERioK L. Gr. STRAUBEL,a citizen of the United States, residing at Green Bay, in the county ofBrown and State of VViscousin, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Desk-Tray Racks; and l do hereby declare the followingto be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such aswill enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make anduse the same.

My invention relates to racks for holding trays or drawers in a positionin which they will normally be disposed one above the other, and inwhich any desired numberof the drawers or trays may be either partiallyor entirely withdrawn fom the rack without disturbing the others. Racksof this general nature are growing to be more and more desirable for thesorting and temporaryv storing of correspondence in othces or otherparts of business establishments, and for the convenient storing ofsmall parts in faeto ries. Where such racks have been built independentof tables or shelving, it has been customary heretofore to construct thesupporting frame of wood, as'shownfor eX- ample in my copendingapplication filed December 15, 1915, as Serial No. 66952.

The construction there disclosed has the usual limitations in strength`-due to a possible splitting or cracking of the wood unless this is soheavy that it appears bulky and clumsy, and also duetq'theimpracticability of enlarging the capacity of the rack according to theincreasing demands of the purposes for which it is intended.

1n its general aspects, my present invention aims to provide a rackhaving sectional verticalmembers which may be increased or decreased innumber as desired, and which will even permit the ready substitution ofrack portions and of trays or drawers differing in height from thosepreviously used. More particularly, my invention aims to provide a rackof this general class in which the guides for .supporting the respectivetrays are all made of equivalent pieces, in which either identical orgenerally similar parts are ,used for the sections of the posts oruprights, and in which these sections may be firmly interlocked, if sodesired, by simple means. Furthermore, my invention aims to provide arack of this class in which each tray-supporting guide-strip ispermanently fastened to a pair of post sections, thereby affordingstructural units which can conveniently be assembled as desired and thusreducing the number of fastenings otherwise required. So also, myinvention aims to provide a rack of the class described in which boththe guide strips and the component parts of the uprights or posts may beformed of sheet metal, and in which the post portions when' assembledwill occupy relatively little room and can readily be finished inimitation of wood to match the furniture of the office in which the rackis to be used. Still further objects will appear from the followingspecification and from the accompanying drawings, in which drawingsFigure 1 is a perspective view of a fourtray desk set embodying myinvention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse section taken vertically through one ofthe risers and a portion of the base adjacent thereto.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of one of the intermediateriser-and-strip units.

Fig. i is a perspective view of one end of the uppermost riser-and-stripunit.

Fig. 5 is a perspective View of one end of the lowest riser-andstripunit.

, Fig. 6 is a horizontal section through the riser of Fig. 2, takenalong the line 6 6.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a desk tray set embodying my inventionand showing one of the trays or drawers partly drawn out of the rack.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged central section taken vertically through one ofthe posts or uprights at the nearer side of the tray of Fig. 1.

Fig. 9 is a transverse section through one of the uprights and anadjacent portion of a guide strip, taken along the line 9 9 of Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view showing corner portions of an alternativeconstruction of the rack of my invention.

Fig. 11 is a horizontal sectionY through portions of Fig. 10, takenalong line 5 5 of the latter.

-1n accomplishing the purposes of my invention, I employ, a base 1,desirably of wood and in the shape of a rectangular frame, and of awidth somewhat greater than that of the trays or drawers. Then I employmetal guide strips 2 of angular secv tion, each of which guide strips isdesirably fastened permanently to one of the elements forming a portionof the upright or post. These uprights are desirably four in number andlocated at the corners of the rectangular base, and each of the uprightspreferably consists of a number of consecutive channelshaped or tubularsections having similar and alined bores, together with a number of corepieces each fitting into the channels or bores of two consecutivehousing sections and thereby connecting the latter. The risers thusformed jointly by the core elements and the elements housing the latterare fastened to the base and to the guide strips which support thedrawers or the trays, the fastening being either to the core pieces orto the housing elements, as illustrated respectively in Figs. 1 and 7.

Thus, in Figs. 1 to 6 inclusive, the base 1 and the guide strips 2 aresecured to the core pieces, and the fastenings of these core pieces tothe guide strips are desirably permanent, as by spot welding each guidestrip to the adjacent core sections forming parts of two of the risersrespectively. If the base is of wood, the lowest core section may desirably be fastened to this base jointly with the lowest section of theincasing elements, as by screws extending through both of the latter andinto the wood base. (See Fig. 5). Likewise, the uppermost incasingelement vand core piece may desirably be welded to each other and to theupper guide strip, as shown in Fig. 4. For the intermediate rack unitportions, I desirably weld two of the intermediate core sections to aguide stri near the respective ends of the latter, ang weld a casingelement to each core section in a position in which it extendsconsiderably beyond the core section at one end, but exposes the coresection at its other end. With the parts thus constructed, the two lowerunits (one end of which is shown in Fig. 5) are fastened respectively tothe opposite sides of the base 1, with the tips of the core pieces 16projecting above the base.

Then one each of the intermediate rack units Y of Fig. 3 is affixed sothat the lower or hollow end of each casing element 17 fits over one ofthe said projecting parts of the core 16, after which the elements 17and 16 are suitably fastened to each other, as by screws 12. Each ofthese intermediate rack frame units then vpresents two upwardly directedand exposed core portions (as in Fig. 3) y which may in turn be housedby the lower ends of the casing elements on another such unit, thuspermitting these intermediate elements to be added to one another in anydesired number. Then the upper rack frameunits are similarly affixed tothe uppermost one of the intermediary units.

These upper units require no upward extension of the core pieces, andhence desirably have the upper ends of their cores hooded by caps 15formed from the core-incasing elements, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

Instead of using incasing elements of a channel section, and appliedlaterally to adjacent core pieces, these elements may be substantiallytubular, so as to telesco e over the adjacent core ends, as in Figs. to11 inclusive, in which case both the wood base and the traysupportingstrips are desirably attached to the tubular elements. Thus, Fig. 8shows a lower and substantially tubular sheath 2 fastened to the woodbase and to the lowest guide strip, while Fig. 10 shows a similarvsheath arranged with its opening disposed outward of the base. Ineither case, this sheath is adapted to slidably receive one of thelowest core sections 4, which may either be loose or permanently secured(as by soldering or welding) to the nextl sheath section 5. The latterin turn houses part of a core 7 which extends upward into another sheath8, and the latter coacts with the top sheath 10 in housing the uppermostcore section 9. When the parts are thus assembled, the weight of themetal portions, aided by the weight of the trays, will tend to keep themin their normal positions. However, they might tend t0 slide more orless if a tray is carelessly withdrawn, or if a tray is left dangling ina partially withdrawn position; I therefore desirably provide auxiliarymeans, such as screws 12 for securing the slidably assembled parts toeach other.

F om the above descriptions and from the rawings it will be obvious thatthe rack of my invention can easily be constructed of parts cheaplyformed from sheet metal, and by japanning these parts in 4imitation ofwood, I can readily obtain an appliance matching the wood furniture of agiven oiiice, but of decidedly greater strength and less bulk than if Iused wood for these risers. Moreover, it will be obvious that eachtubular section presents an upwardly directed socket ready to receiveanother core, so that the height of the rack may be readily increased byaixing additional sections, or interposing the latter between some ofthe sections of the original rack. Moreover, by varying the lengths ofthe cores and of the tubular elements I can readily adapt the rack foruse with trays or drawers of varying heights.

To connect the tubular elements to the guide strips, I desirably employa spot weld, which weld might also be employed for permanentlyinterlocking any of the cores with the tubular elements if so desired.However, I do not wish to be limited to this or other details of theconstruction and arrangement here disclosed, it being obvious retenerthat the same might be modified in -many Ways Without departing from thespirit of rny invention.

l claim as my invention:

l. A rack for series of superposed trays, comprising at each side aplurality of traysupporting strips, each of thel said strips having ahorizontal web adapted to underlie one of the trays, and a verticalWeb;1lattened tubular elements disposed in vertical axial alineinent andeach fast upon the web of one of the strips, and connecting elementseach slidably interfitting two successively superposed tubular elements.

2. A rack for series of superposed trays, comprising at each side aplurality of trayn supporting strips, each of the said strips having ahorizontal web adapted to underlie one of the trays, and a vertical web;flattened tubular elements disposed in vertical axial alinenient andeach fast upon the web of one of the strips, and connecting elementseach slidably interfitting tWo successively superposed tubular elements;in combination with a base, and means for securing he lowerinost of thesaid elements to the ase.

3. In a rack having at each side a pair of sectional risers and aplurality of vertically spaced tray-supporting angle-sectioned guidewayscarried by the risers, a structural unit comprising in rigid formationone of the guideways and a single section of each of two risers.

4. ln a tray rack, risers each comprising a plurality ot' alinedchannel-sectioned elements, and core sections each having one end housedby and permanently secured to one of the channel elements and having itsother end slidably housed by the next consecutive channel element, andmeans for detachably securing the last named end to the last namedchannel element.

5. ln a. rack having at each side a pair of sectional risers and aplurality of vertically spaced tray-supporting guideways carried by therisers, a structural unit comprising in rigid formation anangle-sectioned guideway, two flat riser cores secured intermedr ate oftheir ends respectively to a web of the guideway, and two substantiallytubular riser members respectively secured to and housing the portionsof the cores below the guideway and extending beyond the lower ends ofthe said cores to present tubular ends adapted to receive the upper endsof cores of another such structural unit.

Signed at Green Bay, Wisconsin, October 20th, i917. l

FREDERICK L. G. STRAUBEL.

